Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Open a Yunzhou Continent Tourism Route?
The players’ situations were all pretty much the same.
To begin with, few of their family members were gamers.
Unless they were peers.
What’s more, it was a VR game—something most of their elders had never even heard of.
The moment they heard the players out, they either thought they were messing around or had lost their minds and paid them no attention at all.
Only a few managed to convince siblings or others who had seen them playing before.
A situation like Liang Xueyao’s was still relatively rare.
Although twenty slots were made available, the login channel would still close as usual, remaining open for only one hour.
And at the ungodly hour of midnight, no less.
First off, that ruled out most office workers, unless they had irregular work hours or were already avid gamers.
Even with all the hype, not many people were willing to wait until midnight just to log into a game on time.
Despite all that, once you factored in the rubberneckers, the pool of players vying for those twenty slots was still enormous.
And then there was the large contingent of people who wouldn’t stop complaining.
’What kind of game launches at the ungodly hour of midnight?’
’Couldn’t you have at least made it noon?’
Song Jiulai’s private thought was, ’If it isn’t at midnight, how am I supposed to sneak around and claim territory?’
She had already issued a points-based quest to the other fifty players, tasking them with temporarily picking a plot of land near Wang’an County and quickly building wooden shelters for the newcomers to live in.
Fortunately, the players were now much more adept at using Spiritual Energy. By controlling the wood and utilizing mortise-and-tenon joinery, they could erect a wooden house in a single day.
’The conditions are really crude, but what can you do!’
For the sake of the new players, she had the system teleport her back to the Sect.
After all, as the Sect Master, she had to be there to meet the new players.
She also sought out the contact Su Huanli had left her before departing—Senior Sister Shui Ping of the Feique Sect—and ordered twenty puppets.
This time, she shamelessly bought them on credit.
The truth was, she had completely burned through her Spirit Stones by using an exorbitant amount of elixirs, and she still hadn’t sold the Demon Horned Snake Gallbladder and Earth Spirit Mushroom in her bag.
Fortunately, Senior Sister Shui Ping was an easygoing person and agreed to Song Jiulai’s request to buy on credit.
And though her name was Shui Ping, it didn’t necessarily mean she was an Aquarius...
After spending ten-odd days on First Mountain, returning to the Longevity Sect felt like being reborn.
It was mainly because she had killed so many demon beasts. After seeing their corpses and smelling all sorts of stenches day in and day out, her nose felt like it was about to give out.
Song Jiulai changed into a set of simple, plain clothes and sat in a Wang’an County restaurant, stuffing her face.
This whole Fasting thing was a scam. Even now, at the Qi Refining Middle Stage, she still got unbearably greedy when it came to food.
And the best part was, she could now eat like crazy without gaining any weight.
The Spiritual Energy burned it all off way too fast!
She also discovered some of the players’ creations.
For instance, the waiter eagerly came over to pitch his wares. "Miss, our establishment has recently been producing all sorts of fruit and flower wines, like Peach Blossom Wine and grape wine. We also have our specialty flower pastries and various new gourmet cakes. Would you care to try some?"
Song Jiulai narrowed her eyes and nodded. "Bring me a bottle of grape wine. Do you have any Dongpo Pork?"
The waiter’s eyes lit up. "My, Miss, you really know what’s what! The Dongpo Pork is a new delicacy we learned from the Immortals of the Longevity Sect. We were just preparing to launch it today—we haven’t even put up the sign yet. How did you know?"
’It’s not that I knew,’ she thought. ’It’s just that in stories about traveling back to ancient times, Dongpo Pork is always the first major dish to appear...’
The players would never be able to escape that creative loop.
Although the livestock on the Yunzhou Continent weren’t castrated, their diet was probably different from what they ate on Blue Star. The meat wasn’t as gamey, so it was still suitable for cooking.
And it really was delicious.
Song Jiulai nodded. "Then I’ll have a serving to try."
"You got it!" the waiter chirped.
Song Jiulai was seated by a window on the restaurant’s second floor. Other than the occasional Cultivator walking about, Wang’an County was pretty much like any town from ancient times.
But she had already discovered something different about the mortals of the Yunzhou Continent.
The mortals here lived their own lives; if they couldn’t walk the path of Cultivation, they would spend their entire existence in mediocrity.
Since there was no concept of a nation or a court—only divisions of power—mortals had no channels for upward mobility, nor any motivation to seek it.
Their lives were devoid of ambition, confined to a single place.
Simply because of the existence of demon beasts, living out one’s life in peace was considered a great fortune.
’Can’t they just go out and explore?’
To be trapped in one place for a lifetime, maybe even just a single county town.
’How tragic is that?’
But that was only because she had seen a vaster world and knew just how big it was.
To the common people of Wang’an County, even the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect was like the distant, legendary immortals in storybooks—an abstract concept.
How could they possibly yearn for the vastness of the world?
Some people did try to leave, of course. No one would stop them.
But they would either be killed by demon beasts or die at the hands of ill-intentioned Loose Cultivators.
For the people here, the hardest thing to do was, ironically, the very act of leaving.
Only a lucky few whose families produced a genius would be taken away by those Cultivators if they wished to leave.
But that was merely trading one cage for another.
Only merchant caravans, because they cooperated with the Sects, were able to travel throughout the land.
But the life of a caravan was also fraught with peril.
"...Sigh..."
Song Jiulai let out a faint sigh.
The system asked, "What are you sighing for?"
Song Jiulai replied, "It’s nothing. I just think I had a ridiculous idea."
"Let’s hear it," the system said.
Normally, it wouldn’t proactively read Song Jiulai’s thoughts, even though it had the ability to do so.
Song Jiulai said, "I was just thinking, what if the Longevity Sect flourishes in the future? Could I connect Wang’an County to other places? I could set up travel routes, so even mortals can go wherever they want. I just feel like everyone should get to see the wider world in their lifetime."
"That’s not what you’re really concerned about, is it?" the system probed.
"If I don’t open up travel routes, Fan Guzhou’s fine wine won’t sell, and Zhou Xiao’s delicious food can only be developed here. Their main focus in the future will be Cultivation; it’s not like they can lug their products around everywhere they go, right? The Longevity Sect won’t make the big bucks. To do business, you need trade routes. Wang’an County is just too small."
’Far too small.’
It wasn’t that the system was against Song Jiulai’s idea. "We have too few people right now. Let’s take it one step at a time. How do you plan to manage those twenty newcomers?"
Song Jiulai’s spirits lifted. "I’ve already picked someone for the job. A Wu has to hold down the fort on the mountain, so I won’t trouble him with this."
"Besides..."
Song Jiulai tapped her fingertips. "It’s too slow for me to hunt demon beasts all by myself. The players need practical experience too, but I’m sure not all of them have the guts to go. I think I can start issuing training quests now."
The system disapproved. "You’re going to open those up now?"
Song Jiulai replied, "No. I’ll wait until this month’s tally, then release the training quests next month. I can be reckless because I have you as my safety net, but they can’t. In the early stages, very few of them will be willing to go."
’For now, I should see how the new players are doing.’
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